Draft guidelines for COS use of social media
1Purpose
These guidelines are intended to help managers, faculty and staff maintain a college district-accepted standard for initiation and use of “official” social media sites. These sites reflect the college district in general and should not be confused with personal social media sites set up by employees for personal use. In general, any communications from the the college district’s website or social media sites reflect the college district and therefore should be written and structured in an appropriate, ethical, professional and lawful manner. Inappropriate use of the college district website and social media sites, such as posting offensive, abusive and/or harassing messages or divulging confidential student, employee or district information, may result in disciplinary actions, including any legal action as required by California state law. Using the college district’s social media sites and approved accounts indicates that you have read and will abide by these guidelines.
2Definitions
Social media site: A web page, set up within an already established social media site, administered by a college district employee with the intent of communicating information to others on behalf of the college district — in an official capacity — in general or on behalf of a particular department. Common social media sites include the college’s official Facebook page, MySpace page or Twitter page. However, these guidelines are not limited to only those sites.
Official capacity: Representing the position or opinion of the college.
3Related Documents????
The following documents, forms, and logs of the latest issue in effect shall apply to the extent specified herein.
AP/BP / Title########## / Computer use policy?
########## / Education Code regarding accessibility?
########## / Education Code regarding identification verification for purposes of evaluation?
########## / Graphic identity?
########## / Web site compliance?
4Guidelines
4.1Proper Use
a)Prior to establishing a social media page for college use, employees must contact the COS public information officer and/or the college’s webmaster for proper nomenclature (page naming), linking and set-up.
b)A master list of all social media user names and passwords are stored in a confidential file in the Public Information Officeand the President’s Office and with the webmaster. The webmaster and a representative from the Public Information Office will maintain administrative rights for all social media sites and will maintain a catalog of usernames and passwords for all social media channels. Administrative access to a given social media site will be provided to a college employee as appropriate with permission of the public information officer and of the employee’s administrative-level supervisor or dean.
c)The employee/user may not change the user name and/or password.
d)The supervisorof the employee responsible for posting to the college/departmental social media site must regularly monitor the social media page.
e)The establishment of, and postings to, an official social media site should be used only for legitimate, college-related purposes.
f)The use of social media sites is intended for communication. However, if a faculty member is using a social media site for purposes of student evaluation, he/she must contact the webmaster about setting up a means of confirming participant identification, as per federal law.
g)The use of social media sites is intended for communication. However, if a faculty member is using a social media site for purposes of instruction, he/she must contact the webmaster about making sure the social media site meets accessibility standards, as per federal law.
h)Any social media posts (wall postings, tweets, replies, private messages, etc.) containing obscenities; verbal harassment; threats, slander; offensive comments regarding gender, race, religion, sexual orientation; or any other inappropriate or unlawful content will be immediately removed and reported to Human Resources and law enforcement. Violation of this or any guideline herein may result in disciplinary and/or legal action as well as revocation of social media access.
i)Any photos posted by the employee on the college social media site should portray a favorable depiction of the college, its faculty, staff and students and should in no way contain obscenities, verbal harassment, threats, slander or offensive comments or imagery regarding gender, race, religion, sexual orientation or any other inappropriate or unlawful content. Violations will be immediately removed and reported to COS Human Resources and to law enforcement.
j)Any photos posted by the employee on the college social media site must be owned by the college and must be original photography or stock photography for which the college has paid usage rights. All subjects (students, faculty, staff) portrayed in originalimages must have signed release forms on file with the webmaster and Public Information Office (not required for public events/activities).
k)Participating audience members must not make references to COS employees in blogs, tweets, posts or other verbiage on the college’s official social media sites. Identifiable information will be removed.
l)Personal and identifying information should not be posted on COS social media sites, including but not limited to:
1)Student identification numbers.
2)Employee identification numbers.
3)Social Security numbers.
4)Dates of birth.
5)Personal addresses.
6)Personal phone numbers.
7)Driver’s license numbers.
8)License plate numbers.
9)Make or model of employee vehicles.
m)Users agree to not post or share user names and/or passwords.
n)Users agree to not retrieve or post messages that are not their own. Invasion of privacy, unlawful access to information and posing as another individual are actions subject to discipline and/or legal action.
o)Users will treat the college social media sites as a form of permanent correspondence that leaves a permanent record once posted and that cannot be recalled.
p)Users will respect copyrighted material and agree to not reproduce and/or send any material unless all references, quotes and sources are properly cited.
q)Neither COS employees nor audience members will not engage in the “tagging” of people in photos used on college social media sites. “Tagging” is the process of identifying people in photos on social media sites.
4.2Privacy and Monitoring
a)Social media sites are not private. The expectation of privacy is not conveyed to you as a user/administrator of social media sites.
b)Deleted social media posts, tweets and other entries can be retrieved from the college archival file backups.
c)All college social media sites are regularly reviewed by the Public Information Office.
d)The supervisor of the employee responsible for posting to the college/departmental social media site must regularly monitor the social media page.
5Terms, Conditions, and/or Sanctions
All college employees are subject to California Government Code section 8314, which addresses the use of public resources for unauthorized purposes, and California Penal Code sections 502 and 502.01, which address unauthorized access to computers, computer systems, computer data and the criminal penalties that apply.
915 S. Mooney Blvd.Visalia, CA93277 (559) 730-3200